Eureka weekly sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1887-1902, 1887-10-08
sMOKING.

'sBut l guess they've all taken wings and flied.
sMOKIN6.
A New York Physician Discusses
the Subject Tobacco Heart"
W. N. Butler, N. D., in Epoch.
I suppose that the least harmful method
of smoking is the use of a clean pipe with
mild tobacco-a pipe that has not absorbed
the nicotine. The harmfulness of a pipe
comes from its having absorbed a great
quantity Of nicotine, so that you are con-
stant,y taking more or less of it into the
system. The cigar would come next in
favor. Of course the stronger a pipe is the
more nicotine there is in it, and the more
nicotine you have the greater is the chance
Of injuring your system. The chief con-
~stitusnts Of tobacco smoke are water, car
bonic acid, sarbonic oxide in a state of gas,
and nicotine.
When a man smokes too much the ex.
cess produces redness and irritation OF the
stomach, and the membrane secretes irrsg-
ularly and does not produce the due amount
of gastric fluid. Hence digestion Is inter-
fered with.
That is the first phase. After a while
the stomach gets into such a condition chat
it tolerates this state of existence, so that
there is not the same nausea produced IN
an old smoker that we find in q young
smoker.
Whether smoking is good for a man de-
ponds on his organization. l do not think
that smoking is ever really beneficial for a
nervous man. Then, again, much depends
on how much a man smokes, and when he
smokes. There are certain men who, when
they are tired, when their nervous system
has been Or too great a strain, will smoke
one or two cigars, they will become quiet.
The nervous man should not smoke at all.
Phlegmatic persons would be least liable to
be harmed.
1t depends on how much you smoke as
to whether you will become harmed by the
practice. The people who are injured by
tobacco are those who smoke too much,
these who smoke on an empty stomach and
those who use strong tobacco. But if a
man only smoked in mederation-say two
or three cigars a day-he would not stand
much chance of being injured very seri-
ously. You cannot lay down a rule how
much a man shall smoke. Some men are
more susceptible to the effects Of tobacco
than others. When smoking makes a man
feel bad or nervous, he may consider that
he has received notice to quit. A man
might smoke a cigar after a heavy dinner,
and feel quietsd by it, but if he continued
smoking he would excite the nervous sys-
tenn so that he could not sleep all night.
And there are a great many people who
cannot smoke at all at night without inter.
fering with sleep.
Some men get the habit of smoking so
fixed that they smoke constantly. The
tobacco habit is just as hard to break as
the alcohol habit. / know a man who dis
continued smoking for eight years, and at
the end of that time he wanted to smoke
as badly as he did at first. When the to-
bacco habit is once firmly formed a man sell
dom loses his taste for "the weed"
The disease known as the tobacco
heart" which is caused by excessive smok-
ing, may be described as a weak action of
the heart. In a certain disease Of the
heart produced by smoking the symptoms
are retro-sternal pains, with extreme an
guish, paleness of face, cold sweat, faint.
ness, deep and signing respiration and
slowness Of the pulse, which is also inter-
mittent. I have seen a case where a mans
ordinary pulse was ITO simply from ex-
cessive smoking. Eventually the mans
nervous system broke down entirely.
Then there is the smokers throat. That
consists of an irritable state Of the mucous
membrane at the back of the throat;
rednsss, drynsss and enlargement of the
%tonsils, which render swallowing painful.
This is mors often produced by cigars than
pipes, and is usually cured if the smoker
stops smoking.
Writers cramp, steel-pen palsy,
telegraphers' crSmp and pianista' cramp
are often brought on by an excessive use of
tnhoona Soao1y,nr ~ lo,o +a1, I'LL IL.
cause q trembling of the hands, such as we
see in old age.
A man who has any disease Of the lungs
will increase the throat trouble if he
smokes excessively. The man with a
cough is sure to be more distressed in a
room full of tobacco smoke. While it is
questionable whether the smoking habit
produces any disease of the lungs in itself,
after the disease has once begun there is
no doubt that tobacco smoke acts as an
irritant.
General Grant died of cancer of the
throat, but it is very questionable whether
the disease was produced by smoking
that remains to be proven.
| have never seen any mai who smoked
enough to warrant being sent to an insane
asylum. / have seen one case of sub. acute
mania that was said to have been produced
by tobacco, but I question the statement.
The patient did use a great deal Of tobacco,
but many men outside of insane asvlums
use much of it.
Cigarette smoking is, by all odds, the
most pernicious of tobacco habits, because
the cigarette smokers inhale a large ouan.
tity of tobacco smoke. Nothing too Sc
we're can be said against boys smoking
cigarettes. Cigarette smoking interferes
with nutrition. Boys who are persistent
cigarette smokers are apt to be dwarfed
and stunted in their growth. They do not
grow as they should, and their nervous
system is not properly developed. Not
only is there arsenic in the paper used, but
there are often foreign substances in the
tobacco. If they will smoke cigarettes,
the least harmful ones are the tobacco"
cigarettes. A cigarette smoker is gener.
ally pale, and has an air as if lacking nu.
triton. I think a law should be passed
prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to boys.
Only lately I read an tenn in a new
paper to the effect that ont of 20 young
men who competed for a West Point cadet.
ship at Westfeld, Mass, 10 were rejected
by the physicians because they had 'the
tobacco heart" brought on BY cigarette
smoking. They were unfit for West Point
service.
Cigarette smoking is always injurious.
1t is true that the French, the Cubans, and
Mexicans are great cigarette smokers, but
they are a very nervous people. Still | do
not think it Injuries them as much as it
does Americans.
"a A Naughty Partner.
-